Why prize-led fundraising is a win-win for charities of all sizes

After helping nearly 10,000 causes raise £7 million a year in the UK, Aussie charity lottery experts Jumbo Interactive are bringing One Lottery to Australia. Their goal? To help charities use prize-led fundraising to secure more revenue.

The charity space in Australia is growing, with new ACNC registrations increasing by 4 per cent per year. On the surface, that’s great news. It means there are more organisations devoted to providing much needed services to underserved communities.

But with the average Australian only donating 0.3 per cent of their taxable income, and over 56,000 registered charities vying for that small share of wallet, it can be impossible for all but the biggest to get their fair share. Unfortunately, a good cause alone, just isn’t good enough anymore.

Thankfully, there’s another tried and tested way to secure fundraising revenue that not only supplements cause-led fundraising, but is an effective fundraising channel in its own right – prize-led fundraising. 

What is prize-led fundraising?

Prize-led fundraising typically takes the form of raffles or lotteries. They reward supporters with some form of value for their contribution. Unlike cause-led fundraising, which solely relies on affinity to a cause, and rewards supporters with intrinsic feelings of fulfilment, prize-led fundraising leverages an extrinsic reward of winning a prize for their support. 

The great thing about prize-led fundraising is it combines both the intrinsic reward of supporting a cause, and the extrinsic reward of winning a prize. This can be a great way to convert potential supporters who might not get there on cause-appeal alone.

Why does Prize-led fundraising work?

A whole new appeal to attract a whole new audience

Cause-led fundraising only works with audiences that align with the cause so strongly that they’re compelled to give. While it may be effective to this audience if you can reach them, it’s still strictly limited to just this audience. 

But, prize-led fundraising appeals to a much larger audience, with four in five people being more likely to contribute to a charity lottery as opposed to making a donation. Plus, it’s a great way to attract a younger audience, who can be funnelled into other fundraisers, and nurtured into long-term supporters.

Unlock the potential of your on-site fundraisers and events

The very nature of prize-led fundraising is excitement, and what fundraising event doesn’t benefit from a bit more excitement? Fundraising raffles and lotteries give you a whole new avenue to engage your participants, and a winner drawing gives you an opportunity to add a little fanfare and a lot of engagement.

Multiply the impact of each supporter

Prize-led fundraisers give your supporters a whole new way to contribute in addition to regular donations. This doesn’t just mean more revenue – but it can also help strengthen their connection to your cause. It’s also been found that direct and indirect contributions complement each other, so it’s a real win-win for your charity.

Close the supporter cycle, and keep it flowing

Thanking your supporters isn’t just good manners, it’s a great way to help build a lasting relationship and keep them contributing. Acquiring new supporters is more difficult and expensive than keeping existing ones, so it only makes sense – and dollars – to thank them properly. The chance to win exciting prizes is a great way to reward and thank supporters for their contributions, closing the supporter cycle, and keeping it flowing.

A win for them, is a win for you!

When a winner’s drawn, it’s not just the winning ticket holder that wins something. You get a whole new opportunity to share a good news story with your community. An opportunity to showcase another way that your organisation has helped an individual, and another way to showcase that individual’s contributions and champion that supporter.

If prize-led fundraising is so great, why don’t more organisations try it?

Raffles and lotteries aren’t new concepts by any means. In fact, they’re pretty well ingrained in Australian consumer behaviour. Jumbo Interactive alone processed $487 million in lottery ticket sales in 2020-2021. But if charity lotteries are already so accepted, prevalent, and effective, why don’t more charities try prize-led fundraising?

Providing a prize is costly and can be risky 

Sourcing an exciting enough prize can be costly, and it’s a cost that needs to be settled up front, with no guarantee that ticket sales will cover the cost of the prize, let alone with enough to contribute to the cause.

Permit requirements are confusing

Navigating the complexities of the heavily regulated not-for-profit sector is already hard enough, especially with limited resources. And raffles and lotteries come with their own set of permit requirements that differ from state to state.

It’s hard to devote resources to running one

Running a charity lottery or raffle, especially digitally, can require resources and expertise that a lot of organisations just can’t spare. Especially for the 51 per cent of charities that operate solely with volunteer staff.

With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that it’s typically the largest organisations that are able to leverage prize-led fundraising to its fullest.

But, Jumbo Interactive’s new digital fundraising solution, One Lottery, takes care of all of these, and empowers charities of all sizes to leverage prize-led fundraising. 

What is One Lottery?

One Lottery is a brand new fundraising solution that combines the convenience of digital fundraising, the excitement of a fundraising lottery, and the stability of regular giving. It’s a monthly fundraising lottery, run by Jumbo Interactive, to benefit Australian charities.

Attract and engage supporters with prize-led fundraising. Keep your community engaged all year round with our $5 raffle. Reward your supporters with the chance to win thousands every month. 50 per cent of every ticket sold is returned to your cause. 

One Lottery tears down the typical barriers of fundraising lotteries, and gives charity organisations of all sizes the opportunity to maximise their fundraising potential. With One Lottery, charities don’t need to worry about prizes, because a generous cash prize is supplied for each and every draw. There’s no need to worry about permits, because One Lottery’s got that covered. And because it’s run completely by the tech and team at Jumbo Interactive, there’s no need to devote any resources to running the fundraiser. 

And better still, it’s completely free to join, and operates on a performance-based pricing model, so you only pay when you get paid. 50 per cent of ticket sales go to the charity, and the rest goes to covering operating costs, improving the platform, and supplying the prizes.

Why is One Lottery different?

With One Lottery, the supporters you sign up are yours to steward however you wish, with securely collected data delivered directly to you. So you’re not only generating more revenue, but also building your supporter base.

The monthly draw frequency means instead of only a few opportunities to engage per year, you get 12! And not only that, your revenue flow is quicker, and more stable, throughout the entire year. No more lulls, no more seasonality. 

Interested in joining One Lottery? Visit jumbofundraising.com/one-lottery.

To find out more about One Lottery, watch the explainer video now.